I was going to post a reply to a piece on another blog when Google+ decided to not let me post a comment. Spurred on by my frustration at not being able to voice something, I thought I’d post my thoughts here where my regular readers (thank you both) could consider and respond if you were so arsed… Anyways…

There seems to be some hand wringing, brow furrowing and general loss of sleep over whether what some folks play can be considered Oldhammer or not. Really? If ‘oldhammer’ is defined by the spirit in which you play a game, what the hell does it matter?

If you’re playing with figures that you love, be they metal, plastic or bloody paper counters…what does it matter? If you care greatly for the world/milleau that your version of nostalgia is set in (and all our nostalgia’s are different, its just that they all interlap like a Venn diagram – some bits are real to you and you alone) then just strap that setting to your chosen rule set. To fret over the fact that the 2nd or 3rd edition ruleset that the 15 year old version of you knew inside-out but that the 40+ version of you can’t be arsed with gets in the way of your enjoyment… Jettison it.

If your old school figures (eg. The late 80s dwarf gyrocopters, a jabberwocky, a zombie dragon…) don’t exist in your chosen rulset (eg Kings of War)…well just agree some stats with your fellow gentleman (or lady) gamers and just bloody get on with.

Life is too frigging short to obsess over whether something is one thing or another. Just get a ruleset, agree what your chosen world/campaign setting is, agree some stats if you need to and then get some beloved lead and plastic on the table and have fun with friends.

Oof. Harsh…but a fair summary. Maybe the fact that my own personal nostalgia is wrapped up in the White Dwarf days prior to wargaming killing the RPG star makes me see the hallowed, supposed golden period in a less shinier light than most. I guess I’ve always been one for feel/mood rather than caring for the rules but the blunt truth is that the rules are the framework, not the whole point of the exercise. Personally, I want to use minis that aren’t in the rules so I’m happy making up the rules to fit the world that I want to play in. Now maybe THAT’S Oldhammer. Or maybe it isn’t. Or is it? Or isn’t it….aaarrgghhh!!!!

Exactly. Am I enjoying myself? Is the person I’m playing against enjoying themselves? If not how can we fix this? If we are, fantastic – let’s get on with it!

Or, as I sometimes see it, am I being paid to do this? Do I have a social responsibility to do this? No? Then I really ought to be enjoying myself and anything that gets in the way of that is utterly without merit.

Well put, mate – and I’m in full agreement. I’ll sometimes put a snarky comment alongside when I show off models from 1991 that I’ve recently painted about how they’re “Not Oldhammer to the purists” but ultimately it’s just people wanting to make up arbitrary rules and exclusions and be “right” – or “more right” than everyone else. I posted some of my C23 Ogres on the Reaper forums and some guy tried to correct my calling them “old-school”, because *he* had some pre-slotta figures. /golfclap

I think too many of the “Oldhammer movement” don’t realise how ridiculous that title sounds, and have their heads rapidly disappearing up their own backsides. They’ve become just like some of the unwelcoming and elitist Historical players that looked down on us youngsters playing WHFB3 and RT in the day – and I don’t think they realise it…

Just adding to the agreement here, I never saw the point of telling other people they were doing it ‘wrong’ based on some standard made up based on my own preferences. The snooty historical players I remember well from starting out in fantasy. The only thing they achieved was to keep me out of historical gaming for 20 years.

Full agreement, Dave. I’ve only just been starting into Historicals in the last couple of years (aside from an incursion into FoW 1st edition that never really went far) and I think their looking down on the group of us who played fantasy and sci-fi were a big part of that reason. Funny enough, almost all of my regular group of those days are now into historicals as well as fantasy/sci-fi…

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(Subtropical gardening in Bundaberg, Qld, Australia. An old boy's journey towards gardening using passive and organic techniques, free of chemicals, and with an emphasis on harvesting fresh, healthy garden produce.)